In a Variety and CNN Town Hall Interview, Timothée Chalamet, an actor famous for the revived Dune franchise, Call Me By Your Name (2017), and his recent Oscar-nominated lead role in Marty Supreme (2026), sat alongside Matthew McConaughey to discuss the craft of acting, career longevity, and their shared experiences on the film set of Interstellar (2014). In this talk, Chalamet remarked that he would not want to work in ballet or opera to “keep [them] alive”. He doubled down on his comment by stating, “It’s like, no one cares about this anymore”. This wasn’t the first time that Chalamet has iterated this stance.
Throughout his career, he has made a few distasteful jabs towards ballet and opera, calling them “outdated” and “dying art forms”. What makes the comments particularly disheartening is how the women in his family were performers for the New York City Ballet, one of the most prestigious dance academies in the world.
Upon hearing these statements, performers across multiple facets of the live theatre industry were understandably displeased with the notion that their art was becoming obsolete; an uncontained wave of backlash followed the insinuation that live arts were not marketable or relevant.
Ballet companies, orchestras, and theatres rushed onto their social media accounts, attempting to prove Chalamet wrong and poke some fun while they were at it (such as the Los Angeles Performing Arts Centre releasing the discount code ‘CHALAMET’ for 20% off ballet tickets).
Most commenters have only seen the viral clip of the interview, and have since made grand assumptions based on that sliver of content. So to provide context and surmise that conversation, this is what really happened:
McConaughey mentioned a recent industry trend where the first act (or exposition) has been, unfortunately, disregarded to make way for the story’s conflict. The actor finds that this phenomenon is becoming more common in an age of “shorter attention spans”.
Chalamet’s rebuttal to this is that he has observed the majority of media relying on instant gratification, yet he recognises that a niche group within younger generations appreciate slower-paced work.
This conversation leads to Chalamet voicing pressures from, presumably, agents and executives to keep movie theatres and certain genres “alive”. Then those infamous and, undoubtedly, arrogant words were uttered.
Since then, the actor has lost more than the 14 cents in viewership he believed those comments would cost; his Instagram account saw an approximate 110,000 count mass unfollowing, many celebrities have called out and criticised the elitism he displayed, and popular culture fans believe these comments have severely depleted his chances of winning an Oscar (but if we’re being honest, Michael B Jordan outperformed and ran circles around Chalamet’s “performance”). But the most detrimental loss was certainly having his biggest fan, Simone Cromer of @ClubChalamet, who retweeted a post that read: “Defending a person and then experiencing why nobody likes them is very humbling.”
The public quickly, and somewhat absentmindedly, boarded a crowded hate train. However, as the discourse settles, we all have to critically consider: was Chalamet wrong?
The entertainment and performance industries have never been stagnant; creatives, in their determination to commodify and/or gain more attention towards their art, rely on the transformative influence of technologies and assistive tools. The pattern is consistent. From the earliest dramas performed in Greek theatres, to black-and-white silent films, to classic blockbusters, to fully digitised streaming, and now, to an age of AI hallucinations.
Advancements directly threaten the art forms before them, sadly forcing performers out of the mainstream for a more inclusive, flashy product. Further in the interview, Chalamet discusses the impacts of AI on the creative industries, to which he, once again, mentions the decline of ballet and opera, stating: “Whatever tide is coming is coming”.
Furthermore, the rich traditions, technical brilliance, and customs, which both art forms exemplify, have historically excluded both potential audiences and diverse performers. The conservation of snobbery and elitism in high culture is the very factor that has ensured its slow death.
Chalamet’s “No one cares” comment garnered lashings of criticism, yet the discussion of ballet and opera “dying” has been a forefront thought within the industry for years.
That’s not to say that the fine arts are completely irredeemable and doomed. They are subject to stylistic transformations which may still capture audiences outside of their traditional demographic, such as the contemporary, resistant forms of dance which challenge the strictness of classical ballet.
The most beneficial takeaway from this discourse is that the fine arts do have fiercely loyal supporters despite declining engagement.
Finally, yes, Timothée Chalamet does deserve some repercussions, but it should mostly be reserved for his self-important attitude. Commentators have taken this small moment and misinterpreted Chalamet’s unwillingness tenfold, even though he never claimed that these performers were lazy, undeserving of acclaim, nor untalented.
Speaking of repercussions, McConaughey, who was also speaking in CNN Town Hall, did not receive any consequences when he sided with Chalamet, stating: “You’re not exclusive to Friday night when I buy the ticket to go to the theatre is the only time I can spend time with Timothee Chalamet”. The young actor followed this statement by saying, “I think that is of the past, man. That’s just my belief… Who the fuck is popular enough to go, ‘Hey, you’re only gonna see me’?”
It seems that Chalamet’s main concern is with the lack of accessibility. Though it is highly hypocritical for him to take this stance on live performers when he himself was one, online commentators should recognise the dual responsibility that these industries and their audiences have in keeping the fine arts alive.
So if you decide to use code ‘CHALAMET’ to purchase discounted tickets to an opera show you never would’ve considered attending beforehand, you’ll know who to thank.
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